A survey purely to satisfy idle curiosity. If you feel comfortable telling us, what is your nationality and/or ethnicity?
Moi:
USA (Pennsylvania)
half Russian/German/Polish, half Syrian
Sephardic Jewish (non practicing)
So, from that statement, either your mother or father is from Syria, and your other parent lived in Russia, Germany and Poland? Do I read that correctly?
Yankee Doodle Dandy (also from Penna.)
Grandparents born in Russia (3) and Transylvania (1), all came here about 100 years ago.
I might be Swedish, Norwegian, and German, but we don’t really know for sure because my grandma was adopted. And she lied to us and told us we were French for a long time. She thought it sounded romantic, I guess. I believe I have some German on my mom’s side. Mostly, I’m Chicago born and bred.
My father is a Syrian Jew (a rare breed indeed), and my mother’s family is a mix of German, Russian, and Polish.
Well, I’m adopted. I have some adoption records that state nationalities of my biological parents. However, some things I’ve been told and some things my adoptive mother dug up contradict the record slightly.
I am almost positive, though, that I am German, Dutch, English, and Scandanavian. I have been told, however, that my biological mother was “French Canadian,” though I have also heard things that contradict this.
Also, my adoption record also says “Northern European” after all the other specific nationalities it lists. Northern European, however, covers a lot of ground.
Slight chance of other stuff, too. I really don’t know.
In any case, I’m white, and I was raised in North America.
Well, I’m adopted. I have some adoption records that state nationalities of my biological parents. However, some things I’ve been told and some things my adoptive mother dug up contradict the record slightly.
I am almost positive, though, that I am German, Dutch, English, and Scandinavian. I have been told, however, that my biological mother was “French Canadian,” though I have also heard things that contradict this.
Also, my adoption record also says “Northern European” after all the other specific nationalities it lists. Northern European, however, covers a lot of ground.
Slight chance of other stuff, too. I really don’t know. Sometimes I have this fantasy that Mom was from Guilder and Dad was from Florin . . .
In any case, I’m white, and I was raised in North America.
I have a family history (on my mom’s side) of Irish–great grandparents were “right off the boat”, however, I lived in Oklahoma for 20+ years, so that pretty much cancels out anything else. My father’s family was from England via Arkansas and Oklahoma (imagine the shock…).
Now, I’m living in Pennsylvania…I’m thinking I’d like to live in New Orleans or thereabouts, but still thinking about that one.
I live in England, but am half Bengali, half Indian. To make matters slightly more complex, I have a Scottish first name.
American ,(Florida) adopted, born in America
ethnicity: eastern european/ central asian caucasian type
(Russian) Mennonite and Anglo-Saxon.
And 100% Canadian !
According to my grandmother on my father’s side English and French.
My maiden name was Beauchamp and when I visited London I had so many pepole actually pronounce it correctly…unlike people in Alabama. 
On my mother’s side? Indian and some Irish I believe.
Father born in Canada, mother born in Scotland; all father’s antecedents English for a good ten generations (likely since the Vikings last raided East Anglia, in fact); mother’s ancestors arrived in Scotland from what is now Czech Republic, but back circa 1200 AD. Some guy called Simon de Moravia.
If I was any whiter, I’d be freakin’ translucent!
No religious affiliation, as Dad (raised Baptist) and mum (raised Catholic) both broke with their respective churches in disgust as young people, fed up with being told how to live and what to think.
Born in So. Cal.
Predominantly Korean/Mexican with some Spanish as recent as my maternal great grandmother, and I think there is some Japanese from my paternal grandmother.
American born, as are my parents and three of my grandparents. We’ve been in the US (NY/NJ) for just under 100 years.
As for ethnicity, my dad’s whole family is Sicilian–my gradma was actually born there but came here at age 5 and has never once returned (she’s now 87). She did not speak any Italian to my dad while he was growing up, so we’re more Italian through genetics than culture. Though she curses like an Italian!
My mom’s family is a bit harder to describe. Her mom’s parents were born in Galicia, Spain. (My great grandfather was the cook for some guy nicknamed ‘The Butcher’ in the Spanish-American war. Great-grandpa fought on the Spanish side. He was 90 when he died.)
My mom’s father always said his dad was from Austria and his mom from England and he himself was born in Savannah, Georgia, an only child who was orphaned at age 12. But after he died, in the early 60s, my mom got suspicious of his story. Twenty years later when my grandma died, we found grandpa’s birth certificate and realized it was a fake (there was a spot for his ss number and he was born around 1905. SS came about in the 30s.) So we spent a summer trying to track down a single piece of paper that proved his background. 20 years later we are still trying. (Any Von Schillings out there?) My mom fears that he was some sort of serial killer trying to escape; my sister and I point out that with a German-sounding last name in the early 1900s, you would hardly blend in. We think that he was probably Jewish and that was the ‘big secret’ he was hiding. But I guess we’ll never know.
I idnetify myself as Sicilian since that is the part of the family we hang out with and since that is the origin of my last name. My dad likes to say he is a thoroughbred who married a mutt (and created even muttier kids, I suppose).
As for religion, my parents are both recovering Catholics who have nothing nice to say about organized religions. My siblings and I are unbaptised and have never been to church (except for people’s weddings, etc.)
1/4 Spanish, 1/4 Alaskan Native (not sure it’s Inuit or Native American), 1/32 Shawnee, and the rest is white Euromix (little this little that).
I have ancestors that were on the May Flower and ancestors that fought in the Revolutionary war. Interesting I’m also related to that King Goerge guy running Britain at the time. I might be related to Cheif Keigh-tugh-gua (Translated means Cornstalk). The skilled, wise, and for the most part peacefull Shawnee Warrior said to haunting Point Pleasant Virginia.
Having done the genealogical legwork, I can safely say few Americans actually know where they came from. Even when you trace your family lines back, you reach a point where the information stops being meaningful.
For instance, my father’s family was from eastern Germany/Prussia, but the name is probably of Slavic derivation (Hlavka====>Glaevke====>Glafke).
Stated simply, my ancestry on my father’s side is German (Glafke), and Irish (Fanning), and on my mother’s side is English (Saunders), Welsh (Colegrove), and Scots (Gray). But the Saunders line probably came over from Denmark and before that may have been Austrian. Difficult to say. Sorry you asked?
I was raised in southeastern Pennsylvania (outside Philadelphia), currently living in northern New Jersey. I generally think of myself as “mostly Northern European mutt”. Both sides of my family have been in the US for at least three generations before me, mostly longer.
Mom’s side -> She’s from south Jersey. She’s Scots-Irish, Irish, and about 1/4 Lenai Lenapi (Native American). Many generations back we were horse farmers in Virginia - family rumor has some African American in the mix from back then as well, but there’s no proof.
Dad’s side -> He’s from the area I grew up in. Norweigan with a splash French and Welsh from my grandfather, Irish from my grandmother. Another random interesting family story: my grandmother’s grandfather was supposedly shanghaied in (from?) California, and was never seen again.
From Canada
On my fathers side, there is Irish and English and on my Mothers side it’s all Scottish. The English and Scottish branches came to Canada mid 18th century and the Irish branch came through the united states mid 18th century as well then came to Canada mid to late 19th century. I’m not sure when they came to the British Isles, but they’ve been there from at least the 14th century on.
All four grandparents emigrated from Poland to the US in the 19th century.